The Ballroom Reversed
by Fading Starlights
Summary: Jareth throws a party trying to forget about Sarah, but something catches his eye while he's wandering through the crowd... Read to find out! Seriously, it's a one-shot, doesn't take a lot of effort.


**Sup guys? look, if you're following any of my stories, I'm planning on rewriting them before continuing any of them. Apologies. That could take a while.**

**In other news, I don't own Labyrinth, I don't know who does. Disclaimer dance.**

**Enjoy the show.**

* * *

The masked figures twirled calmly in the throng of bodies pressing up against each other, crowded into these spaces. The bodies twisted, writhed, and swayed with each other to the soft sounds of the orchestral band playing somewhere in the room.

The fae laughed gaily in their thrall, the wine having gone to their brains as they danced with their partners, masked and disguised so no one could quite recognize each other.

One man walked calmly through the crowd. He had barely had a touch of wine, and he surveyed the guests with out much interest. All he sought for the moment was some one to warm his bed for the night. All in the effort of forgetting a particular pair of sparkling green eyes.

A woman in blue pressed herself softly against his back, and when he turned, he saw her look up at him and smile sweetly, batting her eyelashes at him.

His blue coat, studded with who-knew how many tiny sapphires, matched her dress perfectly, but he knew this girl alone would not be enough to make him forget.

The Goblin King sneered down at the blushing girl, whose grey eyes were glassy with intoxication. With a light twirl and a gentle push, he detached the girl from his person and shoved her towards another man who seemed just as intoxicated and interested in finding a bed partner.

Surveying the crowd once again, Jareth suppressed a sigh, trying not to alert his guests that he grew bored of them. Pushing through a group of guests who were laughing at a trick that one guest had managed to pull off involving a little ball of fire snapping and shining like the tip of a sparkler, Jareth was starting to think it was a good time to end the ball for the evening when, out of the corner of his eye, Jareth caught sight of the impossible.

Snapping his neck to the side, Jareth saw flowing black hair disappear in a sea of blonds and felt a breath of disbelief escape him.

It couldn't be.

But Jareth pursued anyways.

Pushing aside guest after guess, sliding seamlessly between couples and avoiding groups that attempted to draw him in with idle gossip and pointless goods, the Goblin King followed the dark hair through the crowd, trying to keep up with the woman who seemed to be taunting him as he had once taunted a young runner.

His breath caught again when he saw the flick of a white dress along with the black hair and he pushed harder against the crowd, moving faster, more determined to catch the woman than before. It couldn't be the same dark haired beauty of all those years ago, but something in him screamed to follow. It couldn't be anyone else.

The figure looked back briefly at him, to see if he was following and when she saw his shocked expression, she smiled briefly before turning away quickly once more.

As he got closer to her, her noted that her dress was made of white feathers sown together, as was the mask that adorned her cheeks, as she repeatedly looked back to see if he was still there. If he was still following her.

Just when Jareth thought he had caught the girl, she vanished completely into the crowd, leaving him standing alone in a throng of dancing bodies as they twirled.

The Goblin King was breathing heavily, not from exertion, but from adrenaline. She was here. She'd been so close. He'd seen those cruel green eyes shining brightly from the holes in her mask. It couldn't be anyone else.

But as quickly as she'd appeared, she was gone and left the Goblin King twisting in place, searching the crowds around him for the white dress and black hair, but instead he found nothing.

Clenching his fist, the Goblin King fought back the urge to scream in frustration. Where had she gone?! Why did he allow his own mind to torture him with these illusions?! Because surely she couldn't actually be _here_.

No, she was probably back in her home Above, with the brother she had won back, telling him stories, spinning tales of witches and princesses and knights. There was no way that one puny mortal girl could have found her way not only to the Underground, but to the Labyrinth and his ballroom with his noticing.

A light tap on his shoulder, caused the Goblin King to whip around sharply, fully intending to send the next young woman who dared to touch him to the bog when he stopped dead in his tracks.

The white dress made of feathers and a mask of much the same. Her long dark tresses fell down her back, delicately placed silver ornaments and baubles glinted lightly in her hair, a small golden amulet adorned her throat.

And most importantly, shining green eyes, so cruel, so innocent, and so _stubborn_ stared back at him as an amused smirk spread across her lips while he stared at her in awe.

It couldn't be.

And yet it was.

"Sarah," Jareth breathed, his wonderment reflected fully in his voice. He knew he should have smirked, been his usually cocky self, but he couldn't bring himself to muster the face.

Sarah was standing here. In front of him. In the Underground. In the Labyrinth. In his ballroom. And he hadn't even realized that she was here until she had chosen to reveal herself.

"Goblin King," she responded civilly, smirking lightly at his gapping face. Slowly, Sarah, raised a hand clad in a thin white glove and offered it to him. "Dance with me?"

"Of course, precious," Jareth said, regaining his composure. He smirked at her and raised her hand to his lips before gently sliding one of his hands onto her thin waist. "It would be my pleasure."

Soon enough they were gliding across the floor just as before, but this time, instead of Jareth singing her a song that would echo in her dreams, they spoke softly in amused and gentle tones that spoke volumes of the unresolved sexual tension that hung between them.

"I must say, precious," Jareth said softly, his voice a gentle caress. "I never expected to see you here of all places."

"Well, I never expected to be here," she responded coolly. "I guess we're even."

"Not quite," he said, pulling her body flush against his and bending his mouth to her ear so that his hot breath rushed past it. He felt a shiver run up her spine and let her feel his smirk against her cheek. "I'm curious as to how ever got here."

Lost in a thrall, Sarah didn't answer right away, her eyes falling shut while her body tried desperately to melt into his arms while she stiffened some of her primary muscles to avoid collapsing. The stubborn girl in his arms wasn't going to give into him easily this time either.

"My friends told me there was a party tonight," Sarah said breathlessly. Her green eyes still closed. "They told me I should come, that I could enjoy a small adventure in the Labyrinth again."

"I presume they provided the dress, then?" Jareth asked, seductively holding their bodies together more tightly.

Sarah nodded, swallowing hard, opening her eyes and attempting to focus on his mismatched eyes in an attempt not to lose control.

The Goblin King knew what was happening to her. The fog of lust and drunkenness around them practically oozed like gas from a car into the room, filling the air and causing even the most sober person to feel overwhelmed with alcohol and desire.

"Yes," she murmured softly.

They danced a little longer in silence, Jareth swirling her across the dance floor, holding the mortal girl deliciously close as he appreciated her very presence. How he had missed her. It had only been nine years, but it had felt like an eternity in a life that had already been an eternity.

But now she was here, in his arms, and he couldn't look away, he couldn't focus on anything but her even as guest after guest disappeared off to their own homes to savor a night of lust with whatever partner(s) they found.

Finally, when there were only a hundred guests left, Jareth murmured seductively in Sarah ear, "Perhaps we should retire as well, hm?"

Sarah swallowed slowly as she nodded, blinking her eyes in an attempted to gain back her sanity from this thrall he had placed her under without using an ounce of magic.

Gently, Jareth escorted Sarah out of the ballroom and into the halls of the Castle Beyond the Goblin City, towards an unused guest room he always kept prepared, just in case. He wanted nothing more than to take her to his own bed and make love to every inch of her body, to run his fingers down her alabaster back, but he did not.

Jareth restrained himself.

But Sarah did not.

They had taken naught but twenty steps before she stopped abruptly and pulled him down into a gentle kiss. Without a second thought, Jareth pressed his lips back into hers and turned her gentle kiss into savory one. Long, slow, until his tongue flicked over her lips lightly, coaxing them to part so he could slip his tongue into her sweet, hot mouth.

On her tongue he tasted strawberries and he pressed her mouth harder against hers, pulling her body against his with the vain, thoughtless intent to press their bodies together into one.

Sarah returned his passion with a fire, their tongues danced and tangled as her mouth spoke of skill and practice that made Jareth growl deep in his throat in what was both possessive and lustful.

He felt himself go hard against her and didn't bother to hide it. With the way she was kissing him, he hardly thought she would care.

Suddenly, Sarah pulled away, drawing another lust filled growl from his throat as her steamy green eyes met his with true desire.

"Why don't we find some privacy," she murmured huskily.

With the snap of his fingers, Jareth transported the two of them to his room before promptly resuming their heated kiss.

Sarah's hands slipped up his chest before she attempted to pull the midnight blue dress-coat off of him. He complied more than willingly before reaching behind her back and deftly undoing every button that hid her natural form from his hungry eyes.

The moment the last button was undone, Sarah's dress dropped to the floor, revealing Sarah's delicate white underclothes and her smooth white figure that curved in just the right ways under Jareth's long deft fingers.

Jareth paused for a moment to look at her glowing figure in the moonlight that filtered through his window. He could see the bumps rise on her bare flesh in the cold air and ran a gloved hand slowly up her side.

It could still be a dream. The Fates knew that he'd had them before. Sarah next to naked in his room, willingly submitting to him. Professing words he longed to hear from her lips, the lips that seemed to taunt him even now as his eyes dragged themselves slowly up her body until they once again met with the cruel green.

Sarah's eyes, glazed with desire only moments ago, now looked at him with confusion. Worry, even. She didn't understand his sudden change in mood, he could see that, but Jareth didn't really care.

If this was real, he wanted to make it last, not some frenzied fuck to satisfy his needs. He wanted something that she would never forget, something that, even if she left him again, she would constantly be comparing other men too. Something that would make her come crawling back to him if she ever wanted anything like it again.

So Jareth lowered his lips to hers slowly, sucking in her breath as though it were his own, coiling his tongue into her mouth. And when he pulled his mouth from hers, pulling an unhappy moan from Sarah, he smirked as he moved his lips to her jaw, distracting her with kisses until he could place his bare hands upon his skin.

A gasp of surprise jumped out of her throat at the touch. He felt the gooseflesh rise up her, his lips part so that his teeth could mark her neck with an angry red mark, drawing another moan from her lips.

He willingly parted with her body briefly when she tugged his shirt from his breeches so he could throw it aside. Moments later, Jareth hoisted Sarah up, wrapping her legs around his hips, playfully nipping at her jaw, as he led them to his bed that stood so tantalizingly close.

As soon as Jareth had her pinned beneath him on the bed, he looked into her eyes again. Desire, wonder, curiosity, passion, all swam in them. He prayed silently, looking into them, that this was not a dream, and his lips came crashing down upon hers as one hand slid between them to touch her most secret of places.

* * *

When their coupling was done, Jareth had refused to part with her, holding her as close to him as he could, whispering sweet words of love in her ear as he splayed his hand luxuriously on her lower back.

Sarah drew small soothing circles on his shoulder, as her eyes grew heavier and heavier. She smiled lightly as his sweet words. He could feel her relaxed form become looser as sleep overcame her, and just as her eyes slipped shut, Jareth let the four fatal words slip from his lips.

"I love you, Sarah."

In her sleep, she must not have realized exactly what she was saying, but the words reached him through his own tired haze.

"I love you too, Jareth."

A smirk pulled the Goblin King's lips and he pressed his lips to the girls' forehead before allowing himself a few sweet hours of sleep. Surely this lovely girl would be waiting for him when he awoke.

* * *

The Goblin King woke up cold and upon feeling his bare chest exposed to the cold air, Jareth groaned, realizing he must have had more to drink than he thought last night and taken another random girl to bed.

The dream he'd had of Sarah gave him pause. She'd seemed to real, so much like the Sarah he remembered, but as a more mature young woman, not the child who'd run.

Sitting up slowly, Jareth purposely did not look at the body he felt on the other end of the bed, feeling too disinterested in what she looked like at the moment. He really couldn't care who she was, because he felt was the shame and need to scrub himself down before tossing her out.

He waited a moment, gathering the coldest, cruelest Goblin King demeanor he could manage this morning, and turned to look at this girl. But he froze.

Though her eyes were closed and her breaths were slow and even, Jareth recognized the girl from the night before. His precious Sarah.

Intending to fake it, Jareth laid back down, and slowly tucked a stray hair that had fallen across her face behind her ear. Sensuously, he continued to run his bare knuckles down her exposed flesh, waiting for her eyes to open and stare at him with even a hint of what had happened the night before.

All he knew, she wasn't escaping his grasp this time. He had imprinted himself upon her heart. Even if she wanted to, he knew she would never truly be able to leave him behind, not after that night.

* * *

**Additional apologies if you feel something is lacking, I didn't feel comfortable, writing the naughty bits. That or I felt like "It's not my place to expose their sex life to the general public! Even characters need their privacy away from prying eyes!"**

**Reviews are appreciated. It's late here, going to sleep now. Bye~!**

******P.S. want to point out that I usually have the head canon of Jareth was probably in love with Sarah, but Sarah didn't love him back (because (a) she didn't know him and (b) he stole her baby brother), but for the sake of this one-shot, i ignored it just this once.**


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